is a 2006

2006 in film

- Highest-grossing films :Please note that following the tradition of the English-language film industry, these are the top-grossing films that were first released in the United States in 2006...

 comedy film

Comedy film

Comedy film is a genre of film in which the main emphasis is on humour. They are designed to elicit laughter from the audience. Comedies are mostly light-hearted dramas and are made to amuse and entertain the audiences...

 written and directed by Japanese

Japanese people

The are an ethnic group originating in the Japanese archipelago and are the predominant ethnic group of Japan. Worldwide, approximately 130 million people are of Japanese descent; of these, approximately 127 million are residents of Japan. People of Japanese ancestry who live in other countries...

 director

Film director

A film director is a person who directs the actors and film crew in filmmaking. They control a film's artistic and dramatic nathan roach, while guiding the technical crew and actors.-Responsibilities:...

 Koki Mitani

Koki Mitani

is a Japanese playwright, screenwriter, actor and film director. He was previously married to Japanese actress Satomi Kobayashi. The name "Koki" is a combination of two Japanese characters - 幸 "Happy" and 喜 "Pleased". In an attempt to add his own character to his movies, as a director he takes...

. The film is set in a five star Tokyo

Tokyo

, ; officially , is one of the 47 prefectures of Japan. Tokyo is the capital of Japan, the center of the Greater Tokyo Area, and the largest metropolitan area of Japan. It is the seat of the Japanese government and the Imperial Palace, and the home of the Japanese Imperial Family...

 hotel on New Year's Eve

New Year's Eve

New Year's Eve is observed annually on December 31, the final day of any given year in the Gregorian calendar. In modern societies, New Year's Eve is often celebrated at social gatherings, during which participants dance, eat, consume alcoholic beverages, and watch or light fireworks to mark the...

, and follows the misadventures of various hotel staff and guests in the run-up to midnight.

The film is reminiscent of the Hollywood screwball comedies of 1930s and 1940s, and explicitly references the 1932 film Grand Hotel

Grand Hotel (film)

Grand Hotel is a 1932 American drama film directed by Edmund Goulding. The screenplay by William A. Drake and Béla Balázs is based on the 1930 play of the same title by Drake, who had adapted it from the 1929 novel Menschen im Hotel by Vicki Baum...

, whose plot also followed the interlinked lives of various characters in a fictional hotel over a short period of time.

Cast members include: Koji Yakusho (Heikichi Shindo, the hotel accommodation manager), Takako Matsu

Takako Matsu

, born , is a Japanese actress and pop singer/songwriter born on June 10, 1977 in Tokyo, Japan. The style of her music is often laid-back and relaxing.- Profile :* Interests: Watching movies and stage plays...

 (Hana Takemoto, the chamber-maid with a case of mistaken identity), Kōichi Satō

Koichi Sato

is a Japanese actor.He is the son of veteran Japanese actor Rentarō Mikuni.-Films:*The Last Chushingura *Nobody to watch over me * Shonen Merikensack * The Magic Hour * Smile Seiya no Kiseki...

 (Katsutoshi Mutōda, the disgraced politician), Shingo Katori

Shingo Katori

is the youngest member of SMAP, a popular Japanese idol group from the agency Johnny & Associates, and he is from Yokohama, Japan. Shingo Katori has acted in several dramas such as Three Peace, and has appeared as a voice actor in such anime series as Akazukin Chacha, in which he voiced the part of...

 (Kenji Tadano, the bell boy with musical aspirations), Ryoko Shinohara

Ryoko Shinohara

Ryoko Shinohara is a Japanese singer and actress. She began her career as a singer in the Japanese female pop band Tokyo Performance Doll, and after its break-up, began a solo singing career with producer Tetsuya Komuro...

 (Yōko, the call girl), Keiko Toda

Keiko Toda

is a Japanese actress and seiyū. Her most famous role is being the voice of the children's hero Anpanman on the long running anime Soreike! Anpanman...

 (Tokiko Yabe, the deputy accommodation manager), Katsuhisa Namase

Katsuhisa Namase

is a Japanese actor, known primary for his roles in Japanese television dramas. His roles are often positions of authority, such as managers, principals, or police officers, but many of these characters also share a certain kookiness and incompetence...

 (Takashi Seo), Kumiko Aso (Naomi Ohara), YOU

You (actress)

You is a Japanese model, television personality, singer and actress.She began her career as a singer, releasing her first single "chotto dake" in 1985. She next formed the Japanese pop group Fairchild in 1988, with Seiji Toda and Hirokazu Kawaguchi, serving as vocalist and songwriter...

 (Cherry Sakura) and Toshiyuki Nishida

Toshiyuki Nishida

is a Japanese actor. Outside of Japan, Nishida is best known for his portrayal of Pigsy in the TV series Monkey.Toshiyuki Nishida has received ten Japanese Academy Award nominations, winning twice, for Dun-Huang in 1988 and Gakko and Tsuribaka Nisshi 6 in 1993...

 (Zenbu Tokugawa, the aging enka

Enka

is a popular Japanese music genre considered to resemble traditional Japanese music stylistically. Modern enka, however, is a relatively recent musical form which arose in the context of such postwar expressions of modern Japanese nonmaterial nationalism as nihonjinron, while adopting a more...

 star).

The film was nominated for 11 Japanese Academy Awards

Japanese Academy Awards

The , often called the Japan Academy Awards or the Japanese Academy Awards, is a series of awards given annually since 1978 by the Nippon Academy-shō Association for excellence in Japanese film...

, but did not win in any of the categories.

Plot

The plot involves numerous characters, the different problems or situations they face in the run-up to midnight, and the ways that these different storylines interact and are resolved. The various storylines include:

• Shindo, who used to work in the theatre, and who tries to hide the fact that he is now a hotel employee when his ex-wife unexpectedly arrives at the hotel.
• Shindo's ex-wife's husband, who is in the hotel to receive an award from a deer
  Deer
  Deer are the ruminant mammals forming the family Cervidae. Species in the Cervidae family include white-tailed deer, elk, moose, red deer, reindeer, fallow deer, roe deer and chital. Male deer of all species and female reindeer grow and shed new antlers each year...
  
   fertility research organisation, but is afraid his affair with Yōko will be found out.
• Yōko, the call girl who is having an affair with Shindo's ex-wife's husband, and gets involved with Mutōda in the course of the night.
• Takemoto, a chambermaid who is mistaken for the mistress of a wealthy elderly man. The elderly man's son offers her money to leave his father; she tries to ensure that the couple can remain together.
• Mutōda, a Senator who is in the hotel hiding from the media, following his involvement in a corruption scandal. He is also the father of Takemoto's son.
• Kenji, a bellboy who wants to be a musician, but has decided to give up on his dream.
• Zenbu Tokugawa, the veteran enka
  Enka
  is a popular Japanese music genre considered to resemble traditional Japanese music stylistically. Modern enka, however, is a relatively recent musical form which arose in the context of such postwar expressions of modern Japanese nonmaterial nationalism as nihonjinron, while adopting a more...
  
  star who is suicidal when not performing on-stage.

External links

• Review of the film at Dreamlogic.net